The Best of CES 2013

There was a time when you could expect the greatest gear in every product category to roll out at CES. The best laptops. The best TVs. The best mobile phones. But that time has passed us by. Production cycles are faster. Companies do their own things. CES is not the same show it once was.

The lion's share of new laptop releases came out shortly after Windows 8 shipped in October. Most of the new phones we'll see for the year will be announced next month at Mobile World Congress. Apple and Microsoft and Google and Amazon make their own news, at their own events, in their own time.

Some have argued this means CES 2013 was a disappointment, or that the show has lost its way. Maybe so. But the fact is there was still a heck of a lot of wondrous new gadgetry to see at CES. Some of it is stuff that isn't even shipping yet. In fact, some of our favorite things were the wildest and the least likely to actually see production this year.

If you want to know what this year's CES was about, it was about the end, and the beginning. It's the end of the era of Microsoft and Sony. It's the beginning of the rise of Chinese companies like Hisense, Huawei, Haier, and TCL. It's the year that some of the best products came out of startups, and even Kickstarter. This is the CES of the future, and we love it. And here are a few of our favorite things.

Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

The Coolest Thing We’ve Ever Put on Our Face: Oculus Rift

If you're of a certain age, you remember the first time you sat down at a computer terminal, opened a browser, and tried the World Wide Web. It was a before and after moment. Although Usenet and other internet communications technologies had been around for years, the web was instantly recognizable as something new and powerful and different that built on all that had come before.

And so is it with the Oculus Rift. Put these VR goggles on your face, and you feel as if you are within another world in a way that's never been possible before -- at least not in a consumer product. Video tracks so smoothly, quickly and seamlessly that you soon forget you are looking at a world of bits. Tilting your head from side to side moves the display in a natural manner -- which is to say up is still up, but your perception changes. Move quickly and your view changes in real time. And because they are light and natural feeling on the face, you soon forget everything other than the world you have stepped into. For now, we only have a prototype -- a teasing glimpse of the future. But it's a future so powerful and so revolutionary that even this gaffer-taped box, with a headband plucked from a pair of ski goggles, was more impressive than the ultra-refined polish of any tablet or smartphone or even 4K TV we saw on display at CES. -- Mat Honan

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired

The Shooter We Want to Stick in Our Messenger Bag: Fujifilm X100S

The retro-styled Fujifilm X100S compact camera doesn't have Wi-Fi, Android or even an interchangeable lens. Instead of piling on the "extra" features, Fuji kept things on the simple side, and concentrated on making a super-badass piece of machinery.

For photographers seeking a balance between the quality of a bulky DSLR and the convenience of a smartphone, the X100S is a slow pitch down the middle of the strike zone. The compact case is light and pocket-friendly, and it oozes more retro cool than a '72 Mustang. Its APSC 16-megapixel CMOS X-TRANS II sensor captures absolutely gorgeous images, and its EXR Processor II is insanely quick. Fuji claims the camera's phase-detection Auto Focus is the fastest in the world (0.08 seconds). Throw in RAW six-frame-per-second shutter blasts and the camera becomes the go-to compact rangefinder for capturing moments you would miss with a smartphone. And, to be honest, almost every other camera on the market.

Throw in a 22mm f/2 fixed focal lens, HD movie recording, and a digital and range-optical viewfinder (perfect for the purists) with digital spit image, and the X100S is a slam dunk. Just don't let your beloved Leica see it. It might get jealous. -- Roberto Baldwin

The Body Monitor That Does the Most: Withings Smart Activity Tracker

Keeping up with the all the activity trackers at CES was an activity unto itself. Do you want a band on your wrist? A device you shove in your pocket? Something from a startup or an established company? This year, the health-minded monitoring device with the most promise was the eight-gram Withings Smart Activity Tracker.

Withings' tiny, chip-like widget is crammed with features. In addition to the requisite step counter, calorie tracker and Bluetooth-connected smartphone app (iOS and Android), the Smart Activity Tracker measures your resting heart rate -- an important metric in judging your fitness. All of your activity information is gathered by the app, and if you happen to be taking it easy when you should be moving, the Smart Activity Tracker alerts you of your lazy ways.

While we're excited about the Basis watch, also an activity tracker, first generation devices like these are prone to usability issues (i.e. Jawbone Up). Withings has been tracking you for years with its smart scales. Now, it'll know what you're up to outside the restroom. -- Roberto Baldwin

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired

The Wickedest Tablet of Them All: Razer Edge

While there were dozens of Android and Windows tablets on display at CES, it was the Razer Edge that grabbed our attention. Though exuberantly priced with a base cost of $1,000 (and up to $1,300), this gaming-centric tablet is still the one to beat.

True to the Razer pedigree, the Edge has almost too much power packed inside -- though there's hardly such a thing as "too much" when it comes to the hardcore gaming set.

Choose between Intel's Core i5 or Core i7 CPU, and pair it with Nvidia's GeForce GT 640M graphics processor and 8GB of RAM. That's some serious beef. The 10.1-inch 1,366 x 768-pixel display looks fantastic, and HDMI ports allow you to hook the Edge up to a TV, bringing all your PC games to the big screen. There's a Game Pad Controller case, which adds full controller-style buttons, triggers and joysticks to the left and right of the tablet -- another gamer perk. And, if you need to do a bit of work, Razer has also built a keyboard case that props the Edge up like a laptop display -- or a Surface tablet.

In a show that's filled with more-of-the-same, there was truly nothing quite like the powerful and sleek Razer Edge. -- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

The Thing We Most Want to Rub: Tactus Technology Tactile Touchscreen

Tactus Technology has created a haptic touchscreen panel that "rises" to create a three-dimensional keyboard. Writing an e-mail on your tablet? Individual letter keys form small bumps for easier typing. When you're done, the keyboard reverts back to a standard, flat touchscreen.

While Tactus Technology isn't making any devices of its own, it's easy to see the appeal of having such a panel on mainstream gadgets like smartphones, tablets, and gaming devices. The company is taking a now commonplace experience -- typing on a flat screen -- and making it a more natural, physical interaction. And it does so without sacrificing the rest of the touchscreen experience.

Even cooler is the fact that the Tactus Technology panels can be configured to do more than just rise up into a physical keyboard. Companies can customize the panel for different types of buttons, say for example, the buttons on a TV remote or buttons for specific tablet games. The possibilities for the panel are varied. Plus, seeing the buttons lift up, seemingly out of nowhere, is downright magical. -- Alexandra Chang

On Our Shopping List: Samsung T9000 Four-Door Refrigerator

Samsung's T9000 smart fridge didn't necessarily wow anybody when it was announced in the company's press event. But when we saw it up close, we were definitely impressed. The built-in 10-inch tablet, the brain of the appliance, is fun to play with and comes packed with apps. If you're a neat freak, the on-board software can definitely help you keep your fridge organized.

More unique and appealing is the fact that the fridge has a dual-purpose compartment that can change from fridge to freezer and vice versa, making for one flexible food preserver. The Samsung T9000 also features a triple cooling system -- with two compressors, three evaporators and a set of sensors -- so that produce kept in the fresh food compartments stays fresher, longer.

We'd love to have one of these in our homes even though we'd have to pay out the nose for one. The T9000 will cost around $4,000 when it's available in late spring. --Alexandra Chang

Photos by Jim Merithew/WIRED

The Only Truly Exciting New Idea in TV: Samsung Curved OLED Panel

One of the most eye-catching electronics on display at this year's CES, standing out even among a sea of HDTVs, was Samsung's OLED TV with a curved panel. The semi-circular shape is designed to provide a more immersive, panoramic experience than a traditional flat panel set, and also provide a wider viewing angle. Indeed, the picture quality was impressive and had a lot of depth. The curved aesthetic is subtle, and the design of the case is mysterious and drool-worthy.

Pricing and release information are still TBD on this 55-inch beauty, a "world's first," according to Samsung. (Of course, LG said that same thing about its curved OLED, too, which was also on display. But the Samsung? It was prettier.) -- Christina Bonnington

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired

The Best Thing to Happen to Android Gaming: Nvidia Project Shield

Nvidia's Project Shield is the best gaming gadget we saw at CES 2013. It's a device perfectly suited for the transition currently taking place in mobile gaming, which is growing from a casual sideshow to an experience that's nearly as compelling and immersive as what's offered on home consoles. Our pick for 2012's game of the year, Telltale Games' The Walking Dead, is a testament to this evolution. It was essentially the same game on a tablet as it was on an Xbox -- except for the controls. Shield, which made it's debut at CES 2013, is a device built for a new paradigm, with its powerful Tegra 4 processor, a 5-inch, 720p touchscreen, and console-quality controls. To top it all off, Shield can also stream video games from your PC, as long as your PC has one of Nvidia's newer GTX graphics cards installed. If you have an extra HDMI cable lying around, you can hook Shield to you HDTV too -- bringing Windows and Steam games from your PC to your TV.

I spent some time with a prototype of Project Shield at CES in Las Vegas, playing both Android games and PC games, and the experience was outstanding. The potential is clear. Nvidia has delivered hardware that's bringing some of the best of console and mobile gaming to one device. But to deliver on this promise, developers will need to do their part by making games that utilize Shield's gamepad. Nvidia will also need to launch Shield at the right price -- somewhere in line with the $200 Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 tablets. Despite these lingering questions, Shield wowed us mostly because it's one of the first hybrid devices of this type that doesn't suck. In fact, I couldn't put it down. -- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

We’ve Got Our Eyes on This: Tobii Gaze

Capacitive touch-based input revolutionized computing in the 2000s, but the next generation of desktop and mobile products will rely on a new form of interaction: eye tracking.

Tobii, a pioneer in this field, demonstrated a prototype of its eye-tracking technology at CES 2012, and then polished it to perfection for this year's show.

The system, available for developers now and in consumer products in the fall, lets you use your eyes as the mouse pointer. Your eye movements are matched to keyboard taps to do things like select or scroll through onscreen items. The result is a super-fast, seamless way to navigate computer interfaces. The Tobii Gaze demo we saw was powering a Windows 8 computer. It wowed us, not only with the polish and precision of the technology, but also by displaying its potential for enabling digital experiences for those with limited mobility. -- Christina Bonnington

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